Alternatives to Backstage
Backstage isn’t the right choice for every company, and not every engineering organization needs Backstage. That might sound strange coming from a company that builds on Backstage, but it’s the truth. As powerful as Backstage is for solving developer experience challenges at scale, it’s not the right tool for every organization, at least not right away, and in some cases, not at all.
Whether you’re a startup trying to find product-market fit or a team with a simple and modern tech stack, there are times when Backstage may feel like more than you need. Here, we’ll explore three scenarios where Backstage may not be the right fit and what to consider instead.
1. You’re Too Small to Need an IDP
Backstage - and Internal Developer Portals (IDPs) in general - shine when teams grow large enough that communication and coordination start to break down. For small teams, however, these challenges simply don’t exist yet.
The Dunbar Number Effect
Robin Dunbar theorized that humans can only maintain stable relationships with about 150 people - hence Dunbar’s Number. In a work context, smaller teams (especially those under 50 people) tend to operate with high levels of trust, shared knowledge, and informal ownership. Everyone knows everyone, everyone knows who owns what, documentation lives in people’s heads, and service discovery isn’t a pain point.
The Breakpoints of Growth
As team size crosses critical thresholds, however, these dynamics start to shift:
- At ~50 engineers: Service sprawl becomes harder to manage. Informal ownership systems start to break down, and tribal knowledge becomes a bottleneck for onboarding. There’s more teams, and their workflow and focus becomes more specialized.
- At ~100 engineers: Onboarding slows dramatically as new hires can no longer rely on organic knowledge-sharing. Tools and microservices proliferate, making visibility into ownership and service health challenging.
- Beyond 150 engineers: Services are difficult to find, ownership is opaque, and communication breakdowns occur without any sort of tooling. Standardization and discoverability becomes a top priority.
Backstage Alternatives for Small Teams
For smaller teams, you don’t need anything fancy to manage documentation and discoverability. Tools like GitHub Wiki or README.md files in your repositories work perfectly for keeping track of processes and service details. If you need a bit more structure, a simple Google Sheet or Airtable can act as a lightweight service catalog, where you can track service names, owners, and key details. These low-effort, low-cost solutions fit well into existing workflows and are more than enough until your team grows and things start to get a bit more complex.
For teams below these thresholds, investing in an IDP might feel like over-engineering. But as you approach these tipping points, the need for a platform like Backstage becomes abundantly clear.
2. You Prioritize Convenience Over Customization
One of Backstage’s greatest strengths is its extensibility. It’s designed to adapt to the unique needs of engineering teams, but that flexibility does come at a cost: it requires upfront investment and ongoing maintenance.
When Convenience Takes Priority
If you prioritize ease of use and simplicity over extensibility, Backstage might feel like too much effort. You might prefer an out-of-the-box solution that:
- Is turnkey and ready to go with minimal setup.
- Doesn’t require significant customization to meet your needs.
- Offers technical support as part of the package.
The trade-off here is that these out-of the box solutions typically tie you to a pre-defined, closed-source roadmap of a proprietary solution, but that may not be a problem if your first priority is ease of use.
Simpler Backstage Alternatives
If convenience and simplicity is your current priority, there are Backstage alternatives like Port or Cortex, which offer off-the-shelf convenience and often a lighter lift for implementation. However, this comes with some considerable trade-offs:
- Closed-source limitations: You’re locked into the vendor’s roadmap and have very limited ability to extend the platform.
- Reduced adaptability: These tools might not evolve with your team’s unique needs as you grow.
The question to ask yourself is: Do you need something flexible enough to grow with you, or are you content with a tool that works for now, even if it’s less adaptable and extensible in the long term?
3. Your Tech Stack Isn’t Complex Enough to Need Backstage
Backstage thrives in environments with sprawling tech stacks, multiple tools, and complex pipelines. If your stack is modern, unified, and relatively simple, you might not yet feel the pain points that Backstage is designed to address.
A Clean Slate vs. Spaghetti Code
- Clean, modern stacks: If your stack is built on Kubernetes with a single CI/CD pipeline and minimal microservices, you might not feel a need for Backstage’s service catalog or tech documentation features.
- No legacy systems: Backstage shines in environments with years of accumulated tech debt - spaghetti code, undocumented services, and disconnected tools. If your stack is new and clean, those pain points might not exist.
Backstage Alternatives for Simple Stacks
Backstage is designed for scale. If you’re not experiencing rapid growth or dealing with legacy complexity, simpler tools like GitHub Wiki/Confluence for documentation and an internal wiki or a Google Sheet for your service catalog might suffice for now. However, it’s worth planning ahead:
- As your team grows, even a clean stack can become difficult to manage.
- Early adopters of IDPs often avoid the scaling pains that hit later-stage teams.
Backstage may not be for you today, but as your team and stack evolve, you might revisit its benefits down the line.
When is Backstage Right for You?
The decision to adopt Backstage depends on your team’s size, priorities, and tech stack. For small teams with simple needs, or for organizations that value convenience over customization, Backstage might feel like overkill. But as you grow—crossing those critical thresholds of 50, 100, or 150 engineers—or face challenges of service sprawl, tribal knowledge, and legacy complexity, an Internal Developer Portal like Backstage can be transformative.
If you’re wondering whether Backstage is the right fit for your team we’d love to help you.